In a bid to attract more advertisers – and their dollars – Twitter is beta testing a “click-to-call” button, which allows mobile users to engage with a Twitter ad by calling the advertiser with the click of a button (or the tap of a finger).

Digiday reports that Twitter is targeting direct response advertisers with the new functionality.

Twitter’s VP of Global Online Sales, Richard Alfonsi, said:

“We’ve always been strong in terms of upper-funnel, brand-oriented goals; engagement, awareness and capturing events and moments. Direct response is thinking about the lower-funnel conversion-oriented goals.”

The button itself would be embedded into a tweet, and would allow any interested consumer to tap it for a one-click call to the advertiser. This would be potentially very useful to brands who are selling direct to consumer, or those who want their Twitter followers to take an immediate action like download an app or ebook.

Twitter ads thus far have typically been used to improve brand awareness, with brands purchasing Promoted Accounts in order to get more follows, and Promoted Tweets and Trends to get more exposure. Some Promoted Products have include coupons, discount codes and calls-to-action in the past, but this new “click-to-call” button could become the most obvious way for brands to motivate their audience moving forward.

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